5 Ways a Personal Career Website Can Boost Your Job Search

By Katka Mrvova

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If you’re job hunting, a great resume is a must. But did you know that a personal career website can increase your chances of being hired?

This is an online world we live in. Even though a classic resume is here to stay, how you present yourself online is getting more and more important. Most of the hiring managers take an extra care checking you up online before they invite you for an interview. A personal career website is a great way to show yourself in the best light online.

You say you don’t know how to code? No problem! There are many website builders and hosted CMS (content management system) sites available where you can create your web easily even if you’re not a coder. Most of them offer a range of pre-designed templates where you simply fill in your text, pictures or links, and here you go – your website is done. If you think you don’t have enough content to create a complex website with plenty of subpages, don’t worry! Your website can look awesome even with just one landing page. Check out Kickresume, WordPress, Weebly, Wix, or Squarespace.

Why should you have a personal career website?

Maybe you think having a personal website is useless for you because you either don’t have that much experience or enough assets to add to your portfolio. Don’t worry about that; anybody can have a website.

If you don’t have extensive experience, your website can serve as a contact page containing little info about yourself with links to your email or social media. You can create your online resume where you list all your previous work experiences and skills, or your site may be your portfolio page where you showcase your best work.

If you have a lot to say, you can combine all of these and create a complex website about the professional (and a bit personal) you. You can link your website to your blog or your photography portfolio page.

A great advantage of a personal web is that it helps you keep your resume brief. If you put a link to your website on your resume, be sure the hiring manager is going to click on it. Hence you don’t have to overflow your resume with too much information. Also, unlike a resume, your personal website is a dynamic place that you can constantly update for new skills or projects.

Do you still need more reasons to create a personal career website? Here you go:

1. People can easily reach you

The disadvantage of a resume is that you send it out privately and usually only a couple of people from the company you’re applying for will see it. A personal website is online for anyone in the world to see.

You might not feel comfortable with disclosing personal information about yourself online, but you don’t have to worry. Having your professional info available online is helpful. You never know who sees your profile and contacts you.

2. It helps you stand out

Even though it’s quite easy to create a personal website, still many people don’t make an effort. Go the extra mile, and your resume will appear much more professional if there’s a link to your website. Of course, make sure your design and content are quality because to have a website isn’t everything. You have to have a good website!

3. More space to showcase yourself

A personal web can showcase all your work in one place. You can’t squeeze much info into a resume if you want it to be easily legible. A resume is just a brief overview of your professional work, but a personal career website can show a lot more from you to the hiring manager. Especially when you’re after a creative kind of job, a personal website is a must-have.

4. You control your online presence

As a fact, the hiring managers google each potential candidate and go over their social media sites. If you have a personal website, they could find all the relevant info about you on it which distracts their attention from your other online presence. Of course, you shouldn’t give your potential employer a reason to think badly of you based your social network sites.

5. You improve your skills

Building a personal web is yet another experience for you. By creating your website, you gain plenty of useful skills every hiring manager will surely appreciate. You enhance your coding skills (if you decide to build your custom website), web design, graphic design, copywriting, and many other skills. And even if you don’t build your website from scratch, but rather use one of the pre-designed templates in one of the hosting platforms, it’s still a creative work that helps you improve.

Would you like to have a personal website but think creating one takes too much time and effort? In Kickresume, you can create your personal website straight from your resume with one click.

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